battue,
Good to know that you know so much more than any game biologist, that all game biologists are ignorant and agenda-driven--and that you can speak for all grouse cover, everywhere, at any time. I am sure there aren't any game biologists who've seen nearly the years and habitat you have.
At the time the WV biologist and I were discussing this very subject, we were standing on a piece of deer-over-grazed West Virginia land that had so little ground cover it couldn't have concealed a meadowlark's nest. Which is partly why the subject came up. The cover much over waist-high was thick enough to make shooting a grouse very difficult, but it you bent over you could see 50-75 yards between the young trees. He'd been familiar with this particular country for around 35-40 yards, and seen all sorts of changes.
